'Yes,' she said, leaving it at that. To explain to him what was still as clear as mud to her about her dynamo would only have her feeling an even bigger fool if he asked some question that was remotely technical.
On Saturday morning she was in the middle of her chores when Fay Cooper rang up for a chat, going on about Debbie's party and asking where had Kathryn got to, before she got round to suggesting the cinema that evening.
'Love to,' said Kathryn, and went back to her chores thinking perhaps she would invite Fay back to supper afterwards.
To this end she went out shopping for a few supplies during the afternoon. She had only just got back and was putting away the things she had bought, when there was a knock on her door.
As she had not expected to see Nate Kingersby until Monday, her surprise to see her tali good-looking boss standing there had no need to be disguised. What she did disguise, or tried to as a smile left her, was the pleasure that rushed through her to see him there.
'Come in,' she said after a moment of being lost for words.
Closing the door as he entered her sitting room, she saw his eyes were observing that there were several homely touches about the place now, where the mantel-piece had been devoid of ornament, bookshelves empty of books the last time he had been here.
She had no idea why he had called, and was on the point of wondering if he had time to stay for a cup of tea, when the dreadful thought struck her that perhaps Rex had had a relapse and that Nate had called to plead with her to go to him.
But even while these thoughts were chasing through her mind, Nate turned his head, and from that slow half smile
that showed for her she was sure his visit had nothing to do with his brother.
'I hope you don't mind me calling like this,' he said, 'but I was in the area, so I thought since I have a favour to ask I would come personally rather than phone.'
'Favour?' she asked, wondering if her portable typewriter would be up to it if he wanted her to do some work, for all he hadn't his briefcase with him. Belatedly she thought to invite him to take a seat.
That half smile was there again as he waited with inbred courtesy for her to be seated before he complied. 'I find myself in something of a dilemma,' he explained, looking big, relaxed and at home in one of her chairs. 'Last week I accepted an invitation to join a friend's dinner party tonight. This morning I rang my host to enquire if his wife had any preference for any type of flowers I intended having sent to her . . .' He broke off as though embarrassed suddenly.
Amazed that the man of the world she was sure he was should ever entertain an emotion such as embarrassment, Kathryn tried to help him out.
'You want me to send the flowers for you?' she questioned, knowing other secretaries sometimes did that sort of thing, though not really seeing why such a request had necessitated him calling to see her in person.
'No,' he said, a shade shortly she thought, as if impatient with her obtuseness. Then he smiled, and she forgave him, seeing his impatience was brought about by his embarrassment when he explained, 'It hadn't occurred to me, until Leigh mentioned it this morning, that I shall upset a well thought out table plan if I turn up without a partner.' That he was not at ease in what he had to ask her was evident in the way he rubbed the bridge of his nose before he went on. 'In the short time I've been back in England my spare time has been filled in working on a five-year plan for the
company and also . ..'
He didn't finish; he didn't need to. Kathryn had no need to be told of the many hours he had put in at Rex's bedside. But still she was no further forward in seeing, if he didn't want her to send his hostess flowers, what then the favour was he had come in person to ask.
'What I'm trying to tell you, Kathryn,' he said, without knowing it giving her the firm impression he thought two short planks had nothing on her for thickness, 'is that not having had time to play since I've been back, I'm not yet into having a little black book filled with females I can contact at short notice.'
The small feeling of indignation that had started to surface, that he didn't think much to her brightness in his dilemma, faded quickly as excitement at what he might be meaning leapt in her heart. Women, she didn't doubt, fell down for him like ninepins, but what he was asking, she thought with growing conviction, bearing in mind how well they had got on with each other these last two weeks, was that in a purely platonic way, would she agree to be his dinner partner. She saw then the reason for his embarrassment. No man with his sort of virility would like to confess that his little black book was full of blank pages.
'W-would you like me to partner you?' she asked nervously. Had she got it wrong? Perhaps he had no intention of letting the harmony they had shared this past two weeks extend beyond five o'clock? But this was Saturday—she checked her nerves. Nate was here now, being pleasant, and Saturday wasn't a working day.
'I was hoping you would volunteer,' he said, his relief obvious. 'Though I would have understood, of course,' and his voice became teasing, 'had you decided a visit to the cinema was a better proposition.'
'Oh, help!' Kathryn exclaimed. 'I've made arrangements for tonight.' She saw that dark frown that had been in
evidence on Monday, and knew then that he wasn't going to believe she had an arrangement to go out with a girl friend.
'I see I've wasted my time,' he said shortly, and stood up.
'No, you haven't,' she said quickly, seeing straight away that if she couldn't convince him he would not only hate her for allowing him to tell her all he had, but also for still going about with the man he thought she had decided was a better proposition than his brother. 'We girls have a code developed from our campfire days,' she said. 'If you don't mind waiting I'll ring Fay, the girl I was going to see a film with, and remind her of the unwritten law made over burnt sausages.'
She knew she was chattering nonsensically away purely because she was going to feel awful if Nate strode through that door. He had teased her, she thought as she dialled Fay's number, hoping she was in, so maybe he would think that had given her licence to tease him in return.
'Hello, Fay,' she said, glad to hear her, and saw Nate was already at the door, but had halted. Then she concentrated on getting out of her prior arrangement for that evening. 'Do you mind very much if we go to see that film another night?' she asked, hoping her friend wasn't going to be sticky.
'Something better come up?'
Kathryn looked at Nate coming slowly back into the room. She smiled down the phone. 'Yes,' she said.
'Lucky you! If he has a pal remember me.'
'Thanks, Fay,' she said, and put down the phone. And so happy was she suddenly that she was having a job keeping her face straight. She looked at Nate and asked, a gurgle of laughter in her, 'Would you have a girl miss Robert Redford and her dinner?' „
Laughter stayed with her when unbelievably she saw whatever charm she had of her own had got through to
Nate. For once again she saw that smile in him that appeared to be more genuine than any others, saw that smile suddenly change into a definite grin. 'Would I let a girl starve!' he answered.
CHAPTER SIX
Why she should so be looking forward to the evening she was to be spending with Nate, Kathryn could not have said. What she did know was that if she wasn't to keep him waiting when he called for her at seven—ample time, she had thought at the time, to get ready—then she had better take a few minutes out to calm herself, then get a move on.
It was ridiculous to feel like this—like some teenager going off on her first date. As far as Nate was concerned she was just doing him a favour by partnering him. He would-be amazed if he knew how the prospect of going out with him had unsettled her. Amazed too if he ever had any idea of what his kiss on her cheek that time had done to her.
Good heavens—she calmed the sudden hurried beat of her heart as that kiss was remembered—there would be nothing like that tonight. That kiss had been in the nature of an apology for the brute he had been to her. H
e wouldn't be kissing her again. Their outing was platonic, nothing more.
At five to seven she was ready, dressed in a flame-coloured jersey dress that had been part of her trousseau. Kathryn knew she was looking good and was glad—though she had some severe worrying moments when she wondered that she didn't feel any pain at donning the dress she had purchased to look good in for Rex. She felt instead only gladness that she had something in her wardrobe that wouldn't make Nate ashamed to introduce her to his friends.
Her feeling of pent-up excitement took a sharp drop when the most horrifying thought came. Had she inherited some of her father's fickleness, that having thought herself to be
in love with one man, she could so soon have no room for him in her mind, all her thoughts centred on the man who would be calling for her any moment now?
She sat down to wait, trying to oust that dreadful suspicion. Would it have waited until she was twenty-four to show itself? she fretted, loathing as she did the fickleness of her father's nature.
She got up to begin pacing the room, trying to come to terms with the fact that if there was one characteristic she admired more than any other it was fidelity of nature, yet in an agony of wondering if that one characteristic that was showing this late in the day was one she hadn't got.
Oh no, it couldn't be, she agonised—and found salvation from the torment of her thoughts that why then so soon after Rex had she been so feverishly waiting for Nate to call. For at that moment a knock sounded on her door, and all emotions save the excitement on seeing him again were aroused, vanished as she knew he had come.
'Hello,' she said, inviting him in, blood rushing to her head, her heart wild within her to see how superb he 'ooked in his dinner jacket.
Nate Kingersby crossed- her threshold and closed the door, his eyes never once leaving her. Kathryn watched, a roaring in her ears as his eyes travelled over the length of her, lighting on her breasts, the curves of her hips, and back to her face, her shining eyes revealing how pleased she was to see him.
'Your mirror will have told you you look absolutely stunning,' he said, no smile about him, his voice level as he stood looking at her, his eyes going from her shining dark hair to her eyes, to her mouth. 'Any words of mine would be superfluous.'
'W-would you care for a drink?' Kathryn offered, her heart still uncontrolled as the knowledge that had just come to her threatened to fracture all semblance of composure.
'I could do with one,' said Nate, causing her to think from the way he was still looking at her that the sight of her out of a business suit or the jeans she had been wearing that afternoon left him needing something steadying. 'But I think I'll leave it until we get to Blanche and Leigh's.'
'I'll get my coat,' she said, turning swiftly, needing to have hours alone by herself to come to terms with the astonishing truth that had revealed itself the moment she had set eyes on him again, seconds only available to her.
Whether Nate thought it odd or not she just had to close the bedroom door, close it and lean against it. Oh, my God, she thought, the reason for all the high excitement all too startling clear. She was head over heels in love with Nate Kingersby!
The knowledge knocked her sideways, had her mouth going dry as foolishly she tried to deny it. But she had to look what was in front of her straight in the face, and was shaken again that no matter how much she didn't want it to be true, it was there still.
She was in love with Nate—real love this time, not that girlish emotion she had felt for Rex. Not that emotion, tepid she now saw, that even while thinking it strong enough to want to marry him she had never been able to give herself to him as Rex had wanted. She had thought then that the reason had been that her inner self had known it wasn't right before they were married. But she saw blindingly now that it wasn't prudery that had kept her from Rex's bed, had him finding another woman to fill that need, but was because deep, deep down that strong sense of fidelity had told her she wasn't truly in love with him.
With Nate, her love was true. She saw that clearly. She saw the reason now for the emotions that had rioted within her when all he had done was kiss her cheek. She loved him with a love that knew no holding back.
Belatedly realising he would be wondering what she was
doing all this time, Kathryn picked up her coat from where she had placed it on the bed. She took one deeply swallowed breath and went towards the door, a smile she couldn't hold back breaking as she opened it and realised at just that moment that she had not after all inherited any of her father's fickleness. A deep and abiding love was the reason for her excitement where Nate was concerned—it had nothing at all to do with fickleness. For glancing at him she just knew without having to question how she knew, that the love she had for Nate Kingersby was a love that would endure for the rest of her life.
She tried to control the shiver of delight that touched every inch of her as taking her coat from her he placed it, his hands impersonal, over her shoulders.
'Ready?' he queried, nothing about him now appearing in the need of an alcoholic steadier as he gave her that half smile.
'Ready,' she agreed, and would have been perfectly happy to sit without saying a word as he drove to his friends' home, had not Nate made occasional conversation which, if she didn't want him to think that after five p.m. on any day she lost her tongue, meant she had to join in.
Leigh Atkins, tall like Nate, was about the same age, though where Nate had a thatch of thick dark hair, some of Leigh's crop was starting to recede. Kathryn liked him on sight, as too she took to his wife Blanche, a thin woman with a wide mouth that was no stranger to a smile as she hooked her arm through Kathryn's, saying she would show her where she could leave her coat.
In all there were a dozen people seated at dinner. And Kathryn was more glad than ever in the well-to-do company present, servants serving them with a delicious meal, that she felt equal to them all in her new dress.
She was in the middle of listening to what the man, introduced to her as Dudley Palmer, to the right of her was
saying when she heard someone ask Nate how Rex was doing, and lost track completely of what Dudley was saying as she waited for Nate's reply.
'Maintaining progress, I'm glad to say . . .' she heard, the only report she had had since she had stopped ringing the hospital herself, afraid the staff would tell Rex she had telephoned and thereby give him false hope that they might get back together again.
'I'm sorry,' Dudley was obviously waiting for a reply to something he had said, 'I didn't hear the last bit.'
'I'll have to get Leigh to do something about the acoustics in here,' Dudley quipped. 'I was sounding you out, actually.'
'Sounding me out?' Kathryn queried.
'Trying to find out if that lucky dog Nate has a call on all your free time, and if not is there a chance you might come out with me?'
'Oh,' she said, stumped for a moment. 'Er—actually . . .' she began, not wanting to snub him, but the only man she ever wanted to go out with was sitting opposite her.
She looked at Nate then and saw he was unsmilingly watching her. She knew suddenly that he had heard what Dudley had said, then felt joy idiotically that for all he might well think she had been leading Dudley on, he turned his attention to him and remarked:
'Find your own girl-friend, Palmer—leave mine alone.'
Unable to look at either of them after that, Kathryn found the petits fours of the utmost interest. Dudley Palmer was partnered by his sister, seated next to Nate, and from the way she had been hanging on to his every word it didn't take any genius to work out that she would have given her right arm to have been the first entry in Nate's little black book. So Kathryn felt doubly pleased that for all his remark had meant nothing other than that he might have noticed she had been struggling to give Dudley a polite brush-off,
Vesta Palmer could not now be in any doubt that for this evening at any rate, Nate had his own girl-friend with him, and Vesta too was wasting her time.
After dinner
a few people danced to the tape Leigh had put on. But her love was too new for Kathryn to know how she would cope if she found herself dancing, Nate's arms encircling her. She was quite content to stand with him, finding she was able to join in the conversation he was having with Leigh and another man. And the other man was not slow in sending her the occasional appreciative look.
Other people came up to them from time to time, and Leigh disappeared to circulate with his other guests. And it was some time later, Leigh having joined them once more as the hour neared midnight, and suggested another drink, that Nate refused, saying they were about to leave.
In the car on the way back to her flat there were several times when Kathryn wanted to thank Nate for the wonderful time she had had. But knowing the enjoyable evening had only turned into being wonderful because he had been there, she was too scared of giving herself away should she become effusive. And another moment passed when she could have said something when Nate, his voice sounding grim, said suddenly:
'Women like you should be kept under lock and key.'
'Why?' she asked, startled as much by the grimness of his tone as by what he had said.
'Don't tell me you didn't notice the way Chivers was looking ready to eat you. Not to mention the way that young sprat Palmer couldn't keep his eyes off you.'
Chivers must have been the man in their quartet straight after dinner, she thought, remembering vaguely Leigh making the introduction, but too full of anguish that Nate appeared to be thinking she had invited his glances to remember more. 'It wasn't my fault,' she said. 'I can't help
it if . . .' She stopped, the most shattering thought coming to her. Was Nate—jealous?
'You hook men without even trying, don't you?' he said, staring straight in front of him, his attention on his steering, the dislike for her in his voice making a mockery of her stupid thought that he might be jealous.
The dashing of her hopes that she affected him in any way other than dislike for what she had done to his brother made pride surge so he shouldn't know how easily he could deflate her.
The Other Brother Page 9
